Ahmed Khan Malik

KARACHI, March 31 (INP-WealthPK) – The Balochistan government has started implementing projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for socio-economic uplift of the province, officials told WealthPK. After the installation of the new government in the province, the Balochistan Public Private Partnership Authority (BPPA) has expedited the implementation of policies to start work on various projects, said Mumtaz Hussain, Director of Policy Implementation in the Planning Department, while talking to WealthPK. He said the government was striving towards sustainable socio-economic development, with a focus on infrastructure, public service and public interest projects to uplift the standard of living of the people. The government intends to actively engage the private sector and promote investments across potential sectors through the PPP model as a means of delivering public services and physical and social infrastructure in Balochistan. Through the promulgation of the PPP Act, the government is encouraging the private sector to pitch proposals to meet the needs of the citizens and to participate in the sustainable socio-economic development of Balochistan. 

Mumtaz said projects with innovative ideas will get preference. To further its development agenda, the government is encouraging submission of unsolicited proposals by the private sector, which will help the government identify and prioritize the PPP projects, overcome challenges related to early-stage project identification and assessment, and generate feasible solutions to such challenges in infrastructure, service delivery and other public interest projects, he added. The PPP Board approved and promulgated these guidelines which set out the mechanism and procedure for submission and evaluation of unsolicited proposals and specify a competitive procurement procedure to be followed, subject to the Procurement Rules, for such unsolicited proposals. Fifteen development projects have been identified to be undertaken under the PPP model. BPPP Unit Managing Director Dr. Noor Muhammad said it had been decided to initially launch 15 development projects under the PPP model.

Apart from the bus service for the provincial capital, the other projects include a seven million gallon per day solar desalination plant in Gwadar, development of Hub Special Economic Zone, and 100MW solar parks in Hub. He said the development and functioning of Bostan Special Economic Zone was also included in the 15 suggested projects, which would be implemented initially under the PPP model along with some other projects. He said the partnership between the government and private sector was being promoted under the PPP across the world and steps will be taken soon in this regard. For promotion of the PPP model in Balochistan, investors from all over the world will be attracted for investment in different sectors. This will play an important role in paving the way for the province to achieve self-sufficiency, he said.  Balochistan follows in the footsteps of Sindh, which has already undertaken various developments projects in various fields under the PPP model.

Credit: INP-WealthPk